Titans conquer Thaliavas

Hyderabad: Telugu Titans gave a flying start to the fifth season of Vivo Pro Kabaddi League with a 32-27 win over debutant Tamil Thalaivas in the championship opener at the Indoor Stadium in Gachibowli here on Friday.The sport’s original superstar Rahul Chaudhari rose to the occasion with a stellar display that was made memorable with a super 10.

He was given admirable support by Nilesh Salunke, who chipped with seven crucial points to help the team close in on a fluent win.

The Thalaivas had a bad start to their campaign although some of the players were good in patches, which exposed their inability to cope up with the exhilarating crowd support for the home team.

Prapanjan opened Tamil Thalaivas tally in the second minute after he secured a bonus point. Rakesh Kumar opened Titans’ account a minute later. In no time, Chaudhari made it 2-2.

Both teams exchanged a couple of empty raids before Salunke scored a bonus point to give Telugu Titans 3-2 lead after five minutes. Titans scored the first tackle point of the match in the sixth minute. The first do-or-die raid came in the 11th minute as Salunke scored a point to give Telugu Titans 7-4 lead.

Thalaivas came back into the game as they scored with a super tackle in 12th minute to tie the game at 8-8. However, the toned up opponents scored six quick points in a minute and inflicted the first all out of the match to lead 14-8 after 17 minutes. Titans ended the first half leading 18-11. By the 22nd minute, it was 22-12 in their favour.

From 25-15, and with 10 minutes remaining, Thaliavas tried to mount a comeback but their raiders disappointed. Telugu Titans tightened their grip with 29-19 score after 35 minutes. Tamil Thaliavas scored two quick points to reduce the deficit to eight points as they trailed 24-32. Thalaivas rallied in the last minute to score three more points but lost 27-32.